


tired of fighting the good fight

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Hermione Granger, Morally Grey Hermione Granger, Multi, Powerful Hermione Granger, not exactly dumbledore bashing but hermione doesnt like him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24935455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Hermione liked to talk, but she knew that sometimes her fists were more effective than her words.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger & Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Neville Longbottom/Harry Potter
Comments: 11
Kudos: 217





	tired of fighting the good fight

**Author's Note:**

> purely self indulgent. i wrote this for Me bc i luv violent/strong hermione as much as i luv flirty manipulative hermione

When Hermione was six a boy from her class pulled on her braids and called her ugly.

She'd said to him, "Stop." but he hadn't listened.

She'd determined then, when he continued to laugh at her, that her words simply wouldn't get across to him, so she had placed her book down and pushed him hard enough that he toppled over.

For a moment, he'd been too surprised to react, and then once he'd realised what she'd done, he got back up on his feet and tried to push her back.

Hermione was a clever girl, was always a step ahead of her peers. She could tell exactly what he was going to do before he did it, so it was easy for her to simply step to the side and avoid getting pushed herself.

"Stop." She repeated, and then proceeded to kick him in the stomach.

He fell, again.

He whimpered a little, and didn't bother getting back up, didn't bother even looking at her anymore.

Hermione considered that a victory, and then picked up her book and left.

*

Hermione liked to talk, but she knew that sometimes her fists were more effective than her words.

*

One day, Hermione had returned from school with an ugly purple bruise on her cheek.

As soon as her mother had seen it she had burst into tears, asking Hermione a flurry of questions that she couldn't quite understand.

Hermione figured if her mother had been that upset over her little bruise, she'd be even more upset knowing that Hermione had done even worse to the girl who had given that to her. So she kept that particular part of the story to herself, instead saying that she had accidentally run head first into one of the teacher's elbows at school.

After that, after her mother had spent that entire afternoon fussing over her and making her promise she wasn't getting bullied, Hermione had learnt that bruises were a bad thing.

She rather thought that the interesting blues and purples and sometimes yellows looked quite pretty, but knew that her mother didn't like them, so most days she pulled her sleeves down a little lower, and made sure to _never_ let her face take any hits.

But just because she knew to protect her face, doesn't mean she was always lucky. Girls, she realised, rarely liked to fight fair, always going for her hair or her eyes.

Hermione stopped by a public restroom before going home, staring at her black eye and wishing desperately that it would disappear.

She didn't know how long she had spent there, simply staring at her own reflection and hoping it would change, when suddenly, she blinked, and it was gone.

Hermione had arrived home that day, face clean of any blemishes, and her mother had smiled as she welcomed her home.

Hermione hadn't known what to make of her apparent new superpowers, but she knew that it would be useful.

*

Hermione was stronger than any of the other girls in her school. Stronger than some of the boys, even.

No one had ever really thought to question it. They were too scared to look or even think of her for more than a second.

Hermione, it turned out, had been unknowingly pouring her magic into her fists when she fought, making her punches harder, making her blows hurt more. She'd begun unintentionally shielding herself with that very same magic, making it so that whenever someone attacked her, she wouldn't suffer as much damage. 

Her superpowers were such a handy thing, she thought.

Though even with her new found powers, it didn't make Hermione invincible.

See, just because she could erase any evidence that she'd been in any sort of fight, she couldn't change anything about the bruises on other kids' bodies. Those bruises would stay, and their parents would react just as badly as her mother had.

She gets called into the principal's office one afternoon, and had walked in to see her mother and father, along with another set of parents, their (very bruised and very scared) child sitting between them.

Hermione had had an inkling that this would've happened at some point, but was still somewhat caught off guard by it.

The principal had spoken first, announcing that they were here to discuss Thomas' situation, or more specifically, his wounds.

(Hermione hadn't actually known the boy's name until he'd said it.)

His parents looked at her as if she were diseased, their noses turned up in disgust.

"Is there any proof?" Hermione had asked, after a long bout of silence.

Thomas' mother had sputtered, eyes narrowed. "Proof? Look at his bruises! That's all the proof we need!"

Hermione looked at Thomas, then at his mother, and frowned. "But do you have any proof it was me?"

At this, her father jumped in, glaring fiercely at the boy's parents. "Exactly! There's no way Hermione would do such a thing, and there's no way she _could!_ She doesn't have the strength to inflict those kind of wounds, she's just an eight year old girl! He's a ten year old boy!"

Her parents and his parents yelled at each other for a few more minutes, Hermione's adamant that she could've never done such a thing, while Thomas' were insisting that she was behind it all.

Hermione was getting tired of the whole thing, so she had merely turned to Thomas, stared him down and mouthed 'Snitch', and then jerked her hand forward as if she were itching to hit him again.

Thomas flinched, and then started crying, blubbering about how he was sorry and that he was lying, that he was actually beaten up by some older boys and he had just accidentally blurted out the first name he thought of when his parents had asked him about the bruises.

There was a long, deafening pause after that, the only sound coming from Thomas as he sobbed into his mother's shoulder.

Hermione's mother looked as if she felt sorry for him, but still shot his parents a hard look that said she would never forget this.

(Thomas' parents spent the next few hours desperately trying to make it up to Hermione and her parents.

Hermione, afterwards, had looked into the eye of every kid that day during recess and spoke.

"No one will believe you."

No one bothered her for a long time after that, and she had learned that fear was just as useful to her as her superpowers.)

*

When Hermione turned eleven, everyone at school knew who she was.

She was to be feared, she was to be respected. No one dared to get close.

The school was blanketed by this odd sort of tension most days, and none of the teachers could figure out why.

Hermione wasn't lonely, but thought most of her days rather boring. Her studies were as smooth as ever, with her coming out at the top of her each and every one of her classes. Her extracurricular activities were successful too. She had trained her superpower for long days and nights, and she could now simply stomp her foot and the concrete beneath her would crack at the mere strength (magic) she poured into it.

That still hadn't made her invincible though, she knew that.

Some of the kids knew that too. Some of the kids were even so tired of the heavy atmosphere at school that they banded together to try and take her down by overwhelming her with numbers.

It was a mix of kids. Some boys, some girls, some older than her, some younger, some her age.

They had cornered Hermione one day after school, dragged her off to a secluded area before she could react, and then all pounced on her.

Hermione, despite her superpowers, could not fight them all back, or block all of their attacks.

She had realised there just might not be a way out of this one, and had resigned to herself that this would be a fight she'd have to lose.

But then something had popped into her head. That moment with the bruise, and the mirror, and the moment her powers had first appeared. She remembered how desperately she had wished for her black eye to disappear then, and wondered, idly, as someone landed a particularly hard kick to her leg and she heard a rather loud crunching sound, if she could wish for something else.

At first, she had wished to be somewhere else, somewhere far away.

After a moment, though, she had realised that wish simply wouldn't do. So instead, she wished for the police to arrive. She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the pain and noise and wished, hard.

_I wish the police were. I wish the police were here. I wish the police were here._

"Oi!" She heard then, and suddenly she felt no more blows, no more kicks, no more punches.

She popped open one eye, cautiously, and saw that somehow a bunch of police officers had now restrained all the kids that had been beating her.

"Are you alright?" One of the policemen asked her, concern written clear on his face.

Hermione had burst into tears then, and the officer spoke in hushed tones for the others to call an ambulance before he crouched down next to Hermione and reassured her softly that everything was okay now.

Hermione hadn't cried for the pain though. She hadn't cried because of the blood, or her broken bones. She had cried in amazement, in awe, for her superpower had become so much more than what she had initially thought, and she thought herself the luckiest girl in the world.

(In the hospital, after the doctors and nurses had tried their best to fix her, after her mother had cried for ten long minutes at her side, the police asked her what happened.

"I don't know." Hermione had mumbled, eyes downcast. She had never been the best liar. "After school they just took me away and then started to..." She trailed off, not really sure how to finish her sentence.

They started to... get their revenge? Beat her mercilessly like she had done them? Sought out their own justice?

"It's alright, Hermione," The officer reassured her, smiling, "we'll let you rest. You won't need to worry about those other kids anymore, okay?"

Hermione looked up at him then, sucking in a breath. "Are you... are you going to arrest them?"

"I'm afraid we can't," He'd sent her a half pitying look at that, "they're too young for jail."

"Good." Hermione mumbled, relieved. She didn't think her case would fully hold up in court. The reason that they had all attacked her would probably come out, and then _she_ would be the one in trouble. "I don't want them to be in jail." She tacked on at the end, when he looked at her strangely.

"What a sweet girl." The officer commented, looking to Hermione's mother as he spoke.)

*

"Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked, eyes twinkling with curiosity. "Are you telling me that my superpowers were actually just magic?"

McGonagall chuckled a bit and nodded. "Yes, I believe so. What were you able to do with your superpowers?"

"Um, well," Hermione hesitated, darting a slightly worried look at her mother, "sometimes I could protect myself with a shield."

McGonagall furrowed her brow at that. "Shield? What do you mean?"

Hermione bit her lip, knowing that her mother didn't like her bringing it up. "Once, a bunch of my schoolmates attacked me after school. I wished really hard I had a shield, and then their punches hurt a lot less. I called it my superpower back then, but now I think it might've actually been magic the whole time."

Hermione's mother winced slightly at that, gripping Hermione's hand tight.

McGonagall had frowned deeply at that revelation, at the thought of a frail little girl being attacked by her classmates, being ganged up on.

She coughed a bit before she spoke again, sympathy swimming in her eyes. "That would've been accidental magic. A lot of magical children are able to bring forth their magic and make things happen unintentionally, usually when they're experiencing any heightened emotions."

 _Magic,_ Hermione thought, lit up with a new sense of wonder.

*

On the train to Hogwarts, Hermione thought about everything she had learnt.

She knew she couldn't possibly hope to rule Hogwarts like she had her primary school. That school had been tiny in comparison to Hogwarts.

She knew too that she was at a disadvantage as a muggleborn, as someone who grew up not really knowing what magic was. She'd read and digested every book she could get her hands on to prepare for the gap she knew she would face in comparison to people who grew up with magic, but she knew she wouldn't have to wait long to reach them, to surpass them even.

Her old tactics would never work in Hogwarts. What use were her fists when she had a wand?

She hadn't liked it though, her wand. Wands in general. Flimsy little things. Thin little sticks. She could snap one in half easily, and then her opponent would be powerless. But with a wand they were so much more powerful too, with her wand she could reach farther than her fist ever could.

She knew, then, that she just had to be as scary with a wand as she was with her hands.

She thought that might be difficult, but had delighted at the thought of a challenge.

*

For some reason, Harry Potter avoided Hermione like the plague.

Most people tended to keep their distance from her, which she didn't really mind, but Harry Potter in particular seemed to go out of his way to make sure they barely ran into each other.

Which was hard, considering the fact that they were in the same house, but something he had been achieving all the same.

"Why do you run from me?" She asked, once she had finally cornered him.

She wasn't angry, or even upset. But she'd been curious.

Harry flinched away from her, eyes darting around wildly, like an animal trapped and cornered. "I- I don't run from you, I have no idea what you mean-"

"Do not lie to me." She snarled, baring her teeth the way she knew terrified the boys in her primary.

Harry gasped, shrinking further into himself. "P- Please don't hurt me!"

Hermione frowned, not because she _wouldn't_ hurt him, but simply because she hadn't thought she'd given him any reason to expect that from her just yet. "Just tell me the truth and I won't."

"You..." He started, clearly frightened, "you remind me of my cousin... Dudley... he... he doesn't like me very much and pushes me around a lot and hurts me sometimes. I thought you- you might end up being like him too. A- A-"

"A bully?" She guessed.

He nodded, silent.

"I won't hurt anyone unless they give me a reason to." She said, matter of factly. "You should be smarter, Potter. If you saw that I was a bully you should've tried to befriend me. Wouldn't you like some protection in this school? You're a weak little thing. If you had approached me instead, been nice to me, befriended me, then maybe I would've been able to protect you from the _actual_ bullies here."

Harry sucked in a breath, wide eyed, as if he had never considered anything of the sort before.

Hermione turned and left him there to think properly about what he wanted.

(Harry stuck to Ron Weasley for a few weeks, but then Draco Malfoy had started taunting him, laughing at him, pushing him around.

And then Harry had ran to Hermione, shaking slightly, and asked, "Can we please be friends? I'll be really nice to you, I promise."

Hermione had never actually had a friend before, so she agreed. "Okay."

Her first task as Harry's friend was to deal with Draco for him, so she stuck to Harry like glue.

Draco finally confronted him after one of their classes. Hermione had looked around to make sure they were alone, and then stopped Draco while he was in the middle of ridiculing Harry by kicking him and knocking him off his feet.

He groaned when he landed on his back, and before he had time to react, Hermione had scooped up his wand and pointed it at him.

"Stop bullying Harry." She'd said.

Draco looked up at her, gaping, before he snapped his mouth shut and glared. "No! You can't do this to me, my father will-"

Hermione channeled her magic into her body, like she had done when she was younger, and stomped _hard_ on the ground. It hadn't cracked the ground like she had done before, but the impact had made everything around them shake for a couple seconds.

Harry had dropped his mouth open in shock. Draco looked at her with trepidation.

"Stop bullying Harry." She repeated as she tossed Draco's wand back at him, and then took Harry's hand and dragged him away.)

*

Being friends with Harry was a surprising thing for Hermione.

She hadn't had any expectations going into it, as she had never had a friend before, but she was quickly finding that having friend was quite a useful addition to her life.

Harry hadn't been lying when he said he would be really nice to her, making sure to accomodate for Hermione whenever she wanted to do something, be somewhere, eat something. It felt to Hermione kind of like she had a servant more than she had a friend, but she liked that too.

Harry had been deathly afraid of her before, but after she had dealt with Draco for him, he had been a lot more comfortable with her. She didn't think he should fully let down his defences around her, but didn't bother to tell him this. She was sure he would figure out in time. And if not, that served her fine too.

"Hermione?" Harry called out suddenly, voice wobbling just the slightest.

"Yes?"

"Um, could you... could you maybe help with Snape?" He asked, blushing a little.

Hermione thought about it carefully.

Snape was a teacher, and she had seen how unfairly he had been treating Harry, but Hermione knew that she couldn't handle this like she had handled Draco.

She had an idea though, and really, that would be enough.

"Alright."

Fred and George Weasley were twins who were a couple years older than her. They weren't too remarkable, but Hermione knew she'd seen something in them. They had a certain way with words, speaking with a convincing lilt to their tone. She thought if anyone could do it, it would be them.

"What's this little firstie want with us?" One of them had asked, eyeing Hermione as if she was a strange foreign object.

Hermione frowned. "I'm planning on getting rid of Snape. Or, if not, at least pressure him into actually being a good teacher and not a complete menace to the students here."

Fred and George's eyebrows had raised rather comically, and then they had burst out into laughter.

"You're quite the ambitious firstie, aren't you?" Fred (she assumed) asked, grinning. "Alright then, lets hear the plan."

Hermione's plan hadn't actually been all that complicated. She'd just needed for Fred and George to get anyone they could convince to sign something for her. A petition. The petition had been titled 'Treat your students fairly or get out.' and had earned more laughter from the twins.

"Seems like something worth looking into. We'll get you those signatures." George promised.

(Hermione handed Snape the petition the next week. There were thirty pages filled with signatures. She hadn't bothered counting them all.

Snape read the front page, snorted, and then burnt the petition to a crisp.

"You cannot threaten me." He'd said.

Hermione raised a brow. "Are you confused, Professor? I'm not threatening you, I am merely showing you that most of the students here have a problem with the way you teach, with the biased way you discipline them. And I was showing you just how many students were willing to write home to their parents about it, and ask them to _do something_ about you and your position at this school."

He startled at that, expression morphing into anger quickly. "What are you-"

"I'd suggest listening to our demands, Professor, lest you find yourself out of a job." She'd said, then turned and walked out.

Their next potions lesson was interesting to say the least. Snape hadn't said anything at all to Harry, opting to practically ignore him all together, and hadn't taken points from Gryffindor for petty little things that had cost them an extravagant amount of points before.

Harry had turned to her with a big, goofy smile when the lesson was over, and that night at dinner Fred and George clapped her on the back for a job well done.)

*

Ron Weasley, as it turned out, didn't quite take to being phased out by Harry very well.

Hermione had left dinner momentarily to go to the bathroom, and while she had been in the stall, he'd run in and locked the door with a spell. Hermione frowned, wondering what exactly he thought this would accomplish.

Then the troll had appeared.

Hermione cursed under her breath as the troll swung its club, striking the door down, locking spell be damned. She had leapt out of the way, ducking under the troll's open legs to get to the other side and out of the bathroom.

She'd stopped though, before she opened the door, and wondered if maybe, just maybe, she could use this chance to test some things out.

The troll swirled, growling once it set its sights on her again. Hermione began channeling her magic into her body again, this time making sure to concentrate on her feet.

The troll lifted its club, and Hermione took off, running with a speed she would've never been able to achieve without magic, and then delivered a swift kick to the troll's stomach. With all the magic that she had channelled into her feet, it had enhanced the strength of her kick so much that she had managed to send the troll flying into the wall behind it and knocking it out.

Hermione had grinned, triumphant, and then McGonagall had come rushing in, Harry not far behind her.

"Miss Granger, what happened here?" She asked, mouth agape at the scene before her.

Hermione relayed her story, figuring that telling most of the truth would be better than any lie she could come up with in this situation. "Well, I was in the stall when the troll came in, and then I tried to run when it broke the door, but then it tried to hit me with its club. When it was going to swing it at me I tried to wish it away, like I did with my shield before when I was eleven. And then he flew into the wall."

"Accidental magic..." McGonagall murmured under her breath.

Hermione actually thought it might be more wandless magic than accidental, given that she could use it whenever she wanted to. But she knew it was highly irregular for anyone as young as her to be able to use wandless magic, so she kept it to herself.

Eventually, McGonagall sighed and sent her and Harry off to bed, promising Hermione that she'd take care of the troll.

Harry asked her what really happened while they were walking back to the common room, and Hermione had told him everything. She'd told him about Ron, about how he locked the door to prevent her from leaving, about how the troll got in, about how she used her magic to kick him and knocked him unconscious with only her foot.

Harry looked at her in awe. Hermione wondered if what she done was really worth that reaction.

(When they arrived in the common room, Ron was sitting there waiting.

Harry had frowned, and then immediately began to yell at Ron for putting Hermione in danger.

Ron had stuttered, panicked and guilty.

"It's okay." Hermione told Harry, urging him up to bed.

He left, mumbling about how Ron was a _great big prat_ , and then Hermione had turned to Ron.

"I could've died." Is all she said.

Ron winced, eyes watering. "I didn't mean to!"

"I could've died." She reinforced.

Ron began sobbing. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Hermione walked away and left him there, crying alone.)

*

Harry, for a reason unknown to Hermione, had went after the philosopher's stone.

They'd discovered what the three headed dog was guarding early in the year. Hermione hadn't cared much for it, honestly, but Harry had been convinced that Snape was trying to steal it and said _"Can you imagine? Snape? Immortal? That would be a nightmare!"._

She hadn't been down there with him, but apparently Ron had tagged along (he'd been desperately trying to get back into Harry's good graces after the troll incident) and helped him. Hermione had to hear later, after everything was over, Harry mumbling under his breath, shaking about someone named Voldemort.

Hermione simply told him, "Get better soon." and considered Voldemort another one of Harry's bullies she would need to take care of.

*

At the end of the year, Hermione introduced Harry to her parents.

"This is my friend, Harry Potter." She said.

Her mother smiled, asking Harry all sorts of questions and generally looking pretty pleased that Hermione had finally managed to make a friend.

Then it was Hermione's turn to meet Harry's relatives. And she did not like them one bit.

"Mr. Dursley, do you know how long you'd be in prison for if I reported you for abuse?" She asked, smiling.

Vernon Dursley narrowed his eyes at her, clearly not believing she'd do it. "There'd be nothing you can prove, girl."

Hermione had grinned then, and Harry had been too taken by surprise at the fact that she was smiling that he hadn't noticed Hermione had grabbed his wrist until he felt her squeeze.

"Ow!" He'd yelped, yanking his wrist from her and clutching it to his chest.

Hermione faked a gasp, bringing her hand to her mouth. "Mr. Dursley, how could you hurt Harry like that?"

Vernon frowned, puzzled. "What? I did no such thing!"

Hermione tutted, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling his sleeve up to show the quickly forming bruises against his skin. "What's this then?"

"You clearly did that to the boy! I didn't touch him!"

Harry looked on in confusion. Hermione merely smiled at Vernon again.

"Oh but if I called the police who do you think they would believe? An innocent little girl? Or a filthy, fat _pig_? I could call them to your house, and all they'd need to do was take one look at the cupboard and that would be enough to put you away. So I'd choose wisely, Mr. Dursley. You can either leave Harry alone or I can call the cops and get you arrested."

Hermione's smile took on an entirely terrifying feeling then, and Harry was torn between admiring her or being afraid.

Vernon had clearly picked the latter, paling as he stepped away. "...Fine... I'll do as you say."

"Good choice. You should remember to stick to that promise. Because if I hear from Harry later that you or any of your family have mistreated him in any way, I will not hesitate to ring up the police immediately, understood?" Hermione asked, voice firm and serious.

He swallowed, slow. "Understood."

*

When they return to Hogwarts for their second year, muggleborns were getting petrified, Harry was hearing voices, and Hermione had gotten jinxed while her back was turned.

"What are we going to do about him?" Harry asked, nervous.

Hermione didn't lift her head up from the book she was reading. "Basilisk."

"What?"

"The voice you're hearing, I think it's a basilisk. You said you talked to a snake once, right? A basilisk is one, a _big_ one, and it has the ability to petrify people. Kill people too."

"Right. Okay. But what about Malfoy?"

Hermione paused, raising her head with a frown. "What about him?"

Harry sighed. "He jinxed you, remember? We have to do something about that."

Hermione merely shrugged. "I haven't thought of anything yet."

" _Wait_ , wait. A basilisk?" Harry choked out, shocked. "I've been hearing a basilisk this whole time?"

"Yeah." Hermione replied casually. "You should try to find it, and talk to it. Maybe you can ask it to stop trying to kill muggleborns."

Harry gulped. "But it might decide to kill me too, even though I'm a halfblood."

"You think one solid punch to the face will get the message through to him? I could go with a kick too, I suppose, but that might be overkill."

Harry nodded, a little lost. "Yes. Probably."

Hermione smiled a bit, then shut her book. "Alright. Let's find the chamber of secrets."

Harry didn't bother saying anything then, just followed Hermione out of the library quietly.

They did manage to find it, eventually. It had taken a lot of Harry going around hissing at walls and waiting to hear a response, but it eventually lead them to Moaning Myrtle and the bathroom she lived in.

"Close your eyes." Hermione whispered, once they had reached the chamber, her own eyes shut tight.

Harry closed his eyes.

Hermione took his hand and blindly lead them forward slowly. Then she heard it, and felt it a little too, the presence of the basilisk. She thought she should be afraid, but instead she felt rather calm.

"Harry. Talk to it." She whispered.

Harry then began to hiss, and Hermione had simply stood there with her eyes closed, hand clutching Harry's, for a long few minutes, before Harry stopped and gave her hand a slight squeeze.

"She said that the heir of Slytherin came and spoke to her, and told her that there were students threatening the safety of Hogwarts. She's supposed to be protecting Hogwarts, and someone apparently told her that muggleborns were going to harm the students, so she went around trying to kill them. Only they got petrified instead."

Hermione hummed, thoughtful.

Before she could say anything though, Hermione was suddenly thrown against the wall. She couldn't put her shield up fast enough given the suddenness of the attack, and she grunted as she felt a bone break.

Harry yelled for her, and then Hermione cracked an eye open. The basilisk had closed its eyes for some reason, so she felt safe to finally look around.

Whoever she had expected to find, it certainly hadn't been Ginny Weasley.

"Ginny?" Harry asked, frowning. "Why did you do that? What are you doing?"

Ginny opened her mouth, conflicted, but before any words could come out she simply dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Hermione groaned, confused, and most importantly in pain, wincing as she tried to stand. Harry immediately rushed over, helping her up, and then suddenly froze.

"The heir." He whispered, eyes darting around the room hastily. "She said the heir is here."

Nobody had noticed the book that fell from Ginny's hands when she fainted until then. Because it was at that moment that a mist had started to rise from it, before it took the form of an older Hogwarts student.

Hermione and Harry stood there, mouths agape, as Tom Riddle had suddenly launched into his story. The explanation for it all. The chamber, the snake, the muggleborns. And then he had written his name out in the air, and rearranged the words to say 'I am Lord Voldemort.' as Harry stiffened beside her.

Hermione was hurting, and tired, and really didn't want to have to deal with this, so she had simply taken her wand out and sent a hex to Tom Riddle.

It hadn't worked, as he wasn't fully corporeal, and he laughed maniacally.

Hermione had figured it wouldn't, but needed the conformation.

"The book." She whispered into Harry's ear as Tom Riddle cackled away. "Feed it to the snake."

Harry looked at her, worried, but then did as she said and immediately dove for the book. Tom Riddle froze for a moment, not sure what had just happened, and in that moment of hesitation, Harry had hissed to the basilisk ' _Open wide!'_ and tossed the book into its waiting mouth. As soon as one of the basilisks' fangs came in contact with the book, Tom Riddle had disappeared, a big plume of black smoke billowing out from the book in the basilisk's mouth as he faded from existence.

Hermione laughed. 

"Harry, tell the snake that you're the _real_ heir, that the other one had been an imposter, that it tried to trick the basilisk into doing its bidding because he simply wanted to be rid of a few annoying schoolmates. Promise the basilisk that as the real heir, you will make sure to come visit her every once in a while and feed her whenever you can. But also make her promise that she stops hurting muggleborns, as they haven't done anything wrong."

Harry relayed it all back to the basilisk. It hissed for a long while in what seemed to be anger, before it seemed to calm down. And then, to Hermione's amazement, it had slithered up close and lowered its head to Harry and Hermione, as if it was saying that it acknowledged Harry as the real heir.

"She was angry, and said that she recognised there was dark magic in the book that we fed her and that she now realised she shouldn't have trusted him so easily. She said she doesn't like dark wizards, and she could tell that we weren't so she's deciding to trust us for now. And then she said she likes to eat rats or other small animals. Oh! Also she wanted to ask us to bring her some other snakes to talk to, she said it was boring being alone down here."

Hermione nodded, making note of everything. Harry then hissed something in reply, probably a goodbye Hermione guessed, and then they had slowly made their way out, asking the basilisk to assist them by bringing Ginny's body back up with them.

(Hermione was sat in one of the infirmary beds an hour later, trying not to squirm under Dumbledore's heavy gaze.

"Tom Riddle you said..." Dumbledore murmured, looking at her suspiciously.

Hermione frowned, wondering what exactly she had done wrong. Hadn't she saved the other muggleborns in Hogwarts? Hadn't she done well?

Harry seemed to sense this, and grabbed her hand for comfort, shooting unpleasant glances at Dumbledore as he did so.

"He called himself Lord Voldemort, sir. And then he disappeared when the snake bit into the book."

Dumbledore had gone ash white at that revelation, and McGonagall had paled similarly from beside him. Hermione could vaguely remember reading about him now that she thought about it, but she hadn't initially cared enough to really dive deep. She supposed now that she's faced him she might as well do some proper research.

"The book... you've brought it back with you?" He asked.

Hermione nodded to Harry and he handed Dumbledore the book. As soon as Dumbledore touched it he seemed to notice something was wrong, frowning deeply at the object in his hands.

"And you're sure the basilisk wont harm any of the other students?" McGonagall asked warily.

"Yes. I told her that Voldemort was lying to her about the muggleborns being dangerous and she said she wouldn't hurt any other students from now on." Harry replied.

Once Dumbledore had finally left a few minutes later, Hermione sighed in relief.

"Don't you like Dumbledore?"

Hermione shrugged. "He doesn't seem to like me or trust me very much, not like he does with you anyway."

Harry frowned to himself, thinking it a little unfair that Dumbledore was nice to him but not to Hermione.

He'd decided then, because Hermione had done so much for him while in comparison Dumbledore had done very little, that he wouldn't trust Dumbledore much anymore, not when he was so rude to his very best friend.)

*

Hermione had spent a few days holed up in the infirmary, and as soon as she was let out wherever she went she was followed by hushed whispers and wary glances.

She'd figured that the news of what happened with the basilisk would've traveled at this point, but hadn't thought anyone would pay her any more attention than Harry.

Fred and George had cornered her after one of her classes, closing in with a rather serious glint in their eyes. "Thank you, for helping Ginny. Harry told us all about it, said if you hadn't found the chamber she might've ended up even worse."

Hermione had nodded, a little wide eyed.

Then, even more to her surprise, Neville ended up coming to her in the common room.

"Harry told me about how you helped him and I... I was wondering if you would help me too?" He'd asked, cheeks pink and eyes cast downwards.

Hermione already had a friend, but she figured having another one wouldn't hurt.

"Okay. What do you need my help with?"

It turned out that Draco was tormenting Neville just as much as he had been with Harry, and Hermione thought that all of it had fit rather nicely together with her plans, so once Hermione and Neville finished their herbology class, she sent Harry to distract Crabbe and Goyle while she and Neville handled Draco.

Hermione hit him with a petrificus totalus while his back was turned, and he stiffened, before landing forward on his face.

Neville winced when Draco hit the ground, hands shaking. 

Hermione kicked him over until so that Draco was now on his back, looking up at the both of them. Then she bent down so that they could see eye to eye, grinned something sick and a little twisted, and punched him in the face. Draco's nose broke, but he couldn't even react.

"Hurts, doesn't it, Malfoy?" Hermione sneered. "You didn't learn your lesson from last time, did you?" She asked, snatching his wand from his frozen hand.

Neville whimpered a little, but Hermione paid him no mind.

Hermione stood back up again and unpetrified him, snorting as Draco yowled in pain and shot up on his feet.

"My father will hear about this!" He'd exclaimed, eyes watering from the pain.

"Oh? And what exactly will your father be hearing, Malfoy? Will you tell him about how a girl had overpowered you? About how you lost to a _mudblood_? I don't think daddy dearest would be very happy with you if you told him that, would he?"

Draco stiffened once again at her words, knowing that she was right.

"You try anything after this, against me or my friends," With this, she jabbed a finger at Neville, "I won't stop at your nose."

She tossed his wand back at him, exactly like she had done last year with Harry, and then dragged Neville off with her, in much a similar fashion as their last confrontation.

("Did you have to hit him like that?" Neville asked later, once they were back in the common room.

Hermione gave him a look that said _are you stupid?_ and scoffed. "Malfoy wouldn't have backed off if I'd just used my words. Surely you should know that much by now."

Neville pouted. "I know... I just don't like it... violence."

"I only resort to violence when I need to. I won't act without reason." She stated, looking Neville in the eye and daring him to argue.

Neville shrunk back, nodding. "Okay."

"Get a new wand." Hermione said eventually. "I know yours is borrowed. That's why it doesn't work well with you, that's why your spells are always weaker than everyone else's. Get a wand that's your own and prove you're just as much of a wizard as anyone else, and then no one will have anything to say about you anymore."

Neville did just that, and when he cast a lumos that glowed just as bright as Hermione's did, he hugged her and thanked her profusely.

Hermione didn't like hugs much, but thought Neville's were rather comfortable.)

*

Third year, by comparison, was a lot calmer than Hermione's first and second.

Instead of just Harry, now Neville would follow her around too. She didn't mind the additional company, as Neville was usually pretty quiet and kept mostly to himself.

"Are you worried?" Neville asked Harry one night. "About Sirius Black?"

Hermione stopped reading to peer at Neville curiously, Harry doing the same.

"Why would I be worried?" Harry asked, frowning.

Neville knit his eyebrows together at that. "Don't you know? Sirius Black is your godfather."

Harry gasped. "He is?"

And then Neville had proceeded to tell him everything he knew. He'd told them that his grandmother had informed him that his parents were apparently part of Harry's parents' will, that Harry was supposed to be passed into the care of Neville's parents if something were to happen to Sirius. But then, and he revealed this part with a trembling voice, his parents had gotten tortured so bad that they lost their minds and Sirius was in prison so Dumbledore decided Harry should be left to his aunt and uncle.

Harry had reeled at that information, at knowing that he should've had other options, at knowing that Dumbledore was the one to place him with his awful relatives.

But then Neville had started talking about Sirius specifically, about how he'd betrayed Harry's parents, leading to their death, and Harry at that point had struggled to breathe.

Hermione had listened to the story, fascinated.

"What did you say happened to Peter Pettigrew?" She asked, thinking something about how he died to have been a little strange.

Neville swallowed, looking scared. "Sirius destroyed him! Used some sort of dark spell on him. The only thing they found there was one of his fingers, Sirius had completely destroyed the rest of his body!"

Hermione frowned a little to herself. That didn't make sense. If Pettigrew had been hit by some sort of blasting curse then his remains, his blood would've been found. But the fact that they had actually found nothing but his finger? That just didn't seem to add up at all. If he had been hit by the killing curse, his body would've been there, whole and in tact. As far as Hermione knew (and she knew quite a bit) there weren't any spells that could simply vanish someone's body almost completely. And if there was, how come a finger got left behind? Wouldn't his whole body have disappeared?

She explained this to Harry and Neville, expressing her frustrations at how it just didn't seem to make any sense.

"What do you think happened then?" Harry asked eventually, clearly upset over the whole thing.

"I wasn't there, I didn't see it, there's no way for me to know what actually happened. But I think it's a whole lot more likely that Pettigrew had simply cut off his own finger and then apparated away."

Neville gave that a bit of thought. "Then where is he now? If he was still alive why didn't he go back to the ministry or something? If he was alive wouldn't we know?"

Hermione hummed at this, wondering herself exactly why. "Maybe he went into hiding."

"But why?"

There was a long pause after this, the three of them thinking hard as to why Peter Pettigrew would possibly hide himself away if he was alive.

"People who go into hiding usually do it for one of two reasons. Either they ran away for safety because they were being targeted," She said, before lowering her voice slightly, "or they ran because they're guilty of something."

A heavy silence fell over the group after that, the three of them in deep thought about whether what happened that day was really as they were told.

Hermione had meant to look into it some more, but then Snape had substituted for one of Lupin's classes and Hermione's attention had been whisked away.

And then Sirius Black had broken into Hogwarts, and Hermione suddenly wasn't sure what exactly she should be focusing on.

"Hermione, look what the twins gave me!" Harry said suddenly one day, pulling her aside to show her his new toy.

The map was a fascinating thing, and Hermione watched with rapt attention at the people that walked about Hogwarts and where exactly they were walking.

Then she saw _Peter Pettigrew,_ clear as day, and froze. "Harry." She'd whispered, and then pointed at Pettigrew's name on the map.

Harry choked a bit, and then snapped his head up. "He really wasn't dead then?"

Hermione thought about this for a long, _long_ while. "He could be dangerous. We need to catch him."

Harry called Neville over and told him about Pettigrew and the map. The boys would go to their room and try to incapacitate Pettigrew (since Hermione couldn't get into the boys dormitories) and then they would bring him down for Hermione to interrogate him. Hermione had said she wanted to have a few words with him before she handed him off to the teachers. But the boys had returned a few seconds after going upstairs and said they hadn't seen anyone in there, only Ron's rat, Scabbers.

They'd checked the map again though, and it said that he was still up there. But if the only thing up there was the rat, then-

"Harry, Neville. Remember what they said about Pettigrew? That all they found of him was a finger?"

The boys nodded at that, wondering where Hermione was going.

"Ron's rat, Scabbers. Is he missing a toe?"

Harry hadn't really taken a good look at the rat before, so he shrugged. But Neville, Neville had paled when he thought about it, and then nodded, slowly.

"The... the rat is Pettigrew?" Harry asked, baffled.

"I suspect he's an animagus, Harry. An animagus is a witch or wizard who can transform themselves into animals."

At that new piece of information, Harry dropped his mouth open. "Wait... you mean that all this time, Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew? Are you telling me that Ron has actually been _sleeping with a grown man_ this whole time?!"

Neville gagged at the thought, and Hermione's face scrunched up in disgust.

"You need to catch him, now. Use the petrifying spell. He won't be suspecting it."

Harry and Neville practically ran up the steps, and then a couple minutes later returned with a frozen rat. Hermione frowned, and poked him a little with her wand.

"Shouldn't we go to Dumbledore or something?" Neville asked, looking more and more worried the longer they waited.

Hermione sighed. If he hadn't been an animagus she figured she probably would've been able to deal with him alone, but even she thought now that he would probably be in better hands if handed off to a teacher.

"Does it have to be Dumbledore? He doesn't like me much, I'd rather we go to another teacher."

Harry thought for a moment, before suggesting Lupin. Hermione agreed, and the three of them headed for his office.

Thankfully, they hadn't really needed to explain themselves much when they showed up at his office, because as soon as he saw the rat he seemed to know exactly what was going on.

"You know him?" Hermione asked, shocked.

Remus's face twisted into an expression Hermione didn't fully recognise. "I did. Yes. He was... he was friends with us, back when we were in Hogwarts. All four of us... James, Sirius, Peter and I, we were a group."

"What should we do with him?"

Remus paused, thinking. "I believe it would be better if I questioned him somewhere a little further away from the students... ah, yes, I know just the place."

Remus had insisted on the three of them staying behind, so they let him go, but then all secretly hid under Harry's invisibility cloak and followed after him silently.

They followed him into the shrieking shack, and then watched with baited breath as he unpetrified the rat and he immediately began to shift back into his human form. Hermione thought he looked rather ghastly, but before that thought could even fully settle in, Pettigrew had tried to run for it. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, a big black dog suddenly raced into the room and jumped onto Pettigrew, knocking him over. Remus stunned Pettigrew, and then yelled at the dog to get off. Except, he called the dog 'Sirius' and this is when Harry gasped, effectively giving them away.

"Harry? Harry where are you?" Remus asked, eyes scanning the room.

Hermione nudged Harry, and he took the invisibility cloak off them with a sheepish little smile. 

"Sorry... we followed you." Harry admitted.

Hermione was too busy staring at the stunned body of Pettigrew to fully pay attention to anything else.

Then the dog started shifting too, and suddenly became a haggard looking man in a prison uniform. Sirius Black, of course.

"You..." Hermione choked out, a little out of breath. "You're all animagi aren't you? You and Pettigrew and Harry's father? Is it because Professor Lupin is a werewolf?"

Remus blinked, surprised she had put together that much, and then chuckled. "Yes, they are. I should've expected that you'd be able to put it all together."

Sirius didn't say anything, but he took one look at Harry and then burst into tears, running over to give his godson a hug.

Hermione still didn't fully trust him at that point though, so she had put an arm out in front of Harry and pointed her wand at Sirius. "What are you doing?"

Sirius sputtered a bit, stepping back cautiously. "Trying to hug my godson?"

Remus sighed, pulling Sirius back by his arm. "Sirius, none of the children know what's going on, why don't you try explaining it to them first?"

Explain he did. He revealed that Pettigrew had actually been the secret keeper for the Potters all those years ago, and that he was the one who betrayed them by telling Voldemort where they were hiding. Sirius had chased after Pettigrew after finding out that he had betrayed them, but then Pettigrew had blown up the street, cut off his finger, and then disappeared. And Sirius was left behind at the scene of the crime, and the aurors had thought he had caused the whole thing. Apparently he hadn't even gotten a trial, so he was unable to even defend himself before they had sent him off to Azkaban.

Harry looked unbelievably relieved at knowing that his godfather was actually innocent, but before they could have a proper reunion, Snape had burst in, wand out.

He pointed his wand at Sirius, opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, Neville yelled out an "Expelliarmus!" and accidentally sent Snape shooting across the room and into the wall.

Harry turned to look at Neville, shock written clear on his features. Hermione, however, shot Neville a proud little smile. Neville himself though only blushed heavily, as if he just realised what he had actually done.

The room had erupted into chaos then, Sirius laughing and clapping Neville on the back for a job well done, Remus beginning to lecture Neville about how dangerous that could've been, while Harry complimented Neville on managing to get the upper hand on Snape of all people.

While they weren't paying attention, Hermione went to pick up Snape's wand where it had fell, and then walked over to Pettigrew's stunned body. He looked up at her, pleading with his eyes for her to let him go. Hermione had only raised her foot, channeled her magic into that foot, and then stomped down, _hard,_ on his nether regions. Tears began leaking out of Pettigrew's eyes, and then he began to wail, his pain so much so that he couldn't hold the sound in.

Everyone's heads snapped up to where Hermione was standing over Pettigrew (save for Snape, who was blacked out and slumped against the far wall). They looked to Pettigrew, who was crying and moaning, and then to Hermione who was wearing her usual mask of indifference.

"What did you do?" Neville asked, knowing that he probably wouldn't like the answer.

Hermione smirked. "I stepped on him."

Harry knew how powerful Hermione could be, and knew exactly why Pettigrew was sobbing. "Where?"

"Here." Hermione said, baring her teeth in a vicious grin, before she stepped on the same area between his legs again.

Pettigrew let out another howl of pain, while Neville flinched away at the sight.

There was a brief pause of shocked silence, before Sirius was doubled over, clutching his stomach from laughing too hard. Harry only beamed at her, as if saying thanks for inflicting pain on someone who had brought so much pain to him. Remus seemed as if he was trying very hard to look displeased by what she did, but was given away by how his lips were twitching up, unable to fully contain the smile on his face. Neville just felt sort of sorry for Pettigrew, even though he knew he deserved worse.

(The minister for magic ended up getting called, and Hermione stood rather stiffly in-between Harry and Neville as she waited for his arrival.

Dumbledore had been looking at her again, that strange look in his eyes. Hermione had frowned and stepped a little bit behind Harry. Harry had noticed, looked at how uncomfortable she was, and then shot Dumbledore a glare, something that caught Dumbledore very much by surprise.

When the minister arrived, he took one look at the stunned Peter Pettigrew next to Sirius Black, and then fainted.

The whole ordeal was rather exhausting, the minister in a rage about Sirius and demanding he be kissed by the dementors, while Dumbledore tried to explain why they were all here and what was happening.

"He was never given a trial, you know." Hermione interjected, all eyes suddenly on her. "Why don't you give him one now?"

Cornelius Fudge had frowned deeply, clearly angered. "That doesn't change a thing, girl, you-"

"How do you think the public would react if they knew Sirius Black was never given a trial, and simply tossed into Azkaban without a second glance? Especially after they find out that Peter Pettigrew was never dead to begin with? Don't you think they'd question the ministry? Don't you think they'd question _you?_ Don't you think they'd reconsider whether you were actually fit to be minister or not? You're being given an option here, to right a wrong. Make the right choice and give Sirius Black the trial he deserved."

Cornelius Fudge had turned a strange shade of pink by the time Hermione had finished speaking, looking thoroughly humiliated while at the same time scared shitless. Hermione quite liked that look on him.

A few days later, everyone was reading the Daily Prophet with a frenzy as it detailed that Sirius Black was actually innocent and was framed for a crime that Peter Pettigrew had committed. Peter Pettigrew was now imprisoned in Azkaban and Sirius Black was a free man once again.

Harry read aloud to Hermione and Neville a letter he received from Sirius, who had been at the time recovering from everything he suffered in Azkaban in a hospital. The letter had explained that once Sirius was deemed healthy he would take Harry to live with him and he would never have to live with the Dursleys. At the end of the letter he'd said, _'P.S. I'm glad to see that you've made some good friends at Hogwarts. Make sure to thank them for me, especially that terrifying yet brilliant Hermione for helping me get that trial and my freedom back.'_ much to Harry's amusement.

"Thank you." Harry had said afterwards, a little shy. "For everything you've done for me so far. I know I could never possibly pay you back for all that you've done but, thank you, really."

Hermione smiled. Something real, something that lacked the usual edge she carried with her.

Harry and Neville could only stare, astonished.)

*

That summer after third year, Hermione and Neville went to visit Harry and Sirius at Grimmauld place for a week.

"Want to hear an interesting story?" Sirius had asked, eyes glinting with mystery.

Hermione and Neville agreed enthusiastically, and Sirius had launched into the explanation of how he found this mysterious locket his house elf Kreacher had been hiding away, and that he had discovered there was strange dark magic stuck to the locket. That he tried everything to destroy but nothing worked.

He'd said it as if it was a funny little story, but Neville had blanched and Hermione thought it wasn't quite an amusing tale to tell a couple fourteen year olds.

"You should try feeding it to the basilisk at school." Hermione mentioned, offhand.

Sirius had stopped moving, and turned to Hermione with a sharp look. "The basilisk at school?"

Hermione looked at him a bit strangely, having thought that Harry would've already told him about it. "In second year Harry and I discovered the chamber of secrets. There was a basilisk in there that had been going around petrifying muggleborns so we went looking for it. We found it, and it turned out that this strange enchanted diary had possessed a girl and got her to open the chamber. Then we had to feed the diary to the basilisk because Voldemort, or at least some kind of projection of him, emerged from the diary and it was revealed that _he_ was the one who possessed the girl and tried to get all the muggleborns at Hogwarts killed. Once the basilisk had bit into the diary, he had disappeared. The diary contained a lot of dark magic and I think the basilisk venom was able to get rid of it, so you should try feeding the locket to the basilisk too."

Sirius sat there, stock still, looking at Hermione as if she was crazy. A couple seconds passed, before he suddenly jumped up and ran up the stairs yelling after Harry.

Fifteen minutes later, Sirius came back down with Harry trailing after him.

"Alright. From now on there are _no_ secrets between us, okay? If Harry won't tell me something I trust that one of you will tell me instead. I need to know everything so that I can properly look after you, understand?"

Harry mumbled "Yes.." under his breath, embarrassed. Neville and Hermione shared a look and laughed.

*

Hermione had hoped that her fourth year would be just as exciting as her last three, and wasn't disappointed when Dumbledore had announced that the Triwizard Tournament would be taking place in Hogwarts.

She had been a little put out that it was only available for those that were seventeen and older, but concealed her disappointment well.

Harry's name shooting out of the cup had been just as good, though. Hermione decided if she couldn't take part in the competition, at least she could help guide Harry through it, and have her tell him exactly how it felt.

Sirius had been appropriately outraged when he'd heard of the news, especially considering how adamant Harry was that he didn't insert his name in the cup nor did he want to. Dumbledore insisted that there was nothing to be done however, saying something about how the cup had bound Harry to the competition and that there was no way out.

One night, as Harry was attempting to brush up on his spellwork, Ron had come up to him and Hermione, nervous.

"My brother, Charlie, he usually works in Romania in a dragon reserve, and well, he just told me that he just helped bring four dragons over here to Hogwarts. He says that he thinks it might have something to do with the first task, and I thought I should warn you..." He'd said, eyes trained on the ground the entire time.

"Dragons." Harry muttered, paling.

Hermione addressed Ron. "Thanks for the warning."

Ron smiled at the thanks, and then took off.

"Let's try to slay a dragon." Hermione grinned.

Harry moaned, letting his head fall on the table with a loud thud.

In the end, they couldn't quite find a way to slay the dragon, only finding ways to evade it. No one had ever successfully killed a dragon before, it seemed. That had only made Hermione itch to become the first person to try, and become the first person to succeed.

Harry was having a pretty miserable time leading up to the first task. Everybody other than Hermione and Neville (and for some reason Ron) believed that he had somehow cheated his way into becoming a champion and were actively showing him exactly what they thought of that. Hermione had wanted to help, but couldn't possibly attempt to take on all three other houses despite her wandless magic.

Neville hadn't gotten off to a great start either. In Professor Moody's first class, he had demonstrated the use of the unforgivable curses, and Neville hadn't taken to that very well. Hermione had been fascinated, a little excited that she had actually been able to witness those spells herself, but the moment she had seen the effect of using the cruciatus curse had on Neville, she decided that Professor Moody had to go.

She found his class rather interesting, but he had hurt Neville and didn't seem to care despite Harry's protests for him to stop, so she knew she had to get rid of him.

Later that night, she'd taken Harry's invisibility cloak and map and left to find Moody. She found him on the map, and headed for him.

A quick alohomora and she was inside his office. The map showed that he was in the corner of the room, but when she raised her head to look at the room there had only been a box there. She frowned before stepping forward to take a closer look. She was just about to attempt to open the box when the door burst open, and she hastily hid herself behind the box. She knew she was invisible, but knew it was still a risk to be standing in the open.

Moody had just walked in and sat in his chair in a huff. Hermione knew that wasn't right, the map had already said Moody was in the room. She checked again, and her eyes widened when she saw that the Moody she thought she was looking at was actually Barty Crouch. She remembered that she'd seen him that first night at the feast, but Moody had been there too, so was it some time after that Crouch had taken Moody's place? Hermione had only gotten immensely confused at the information, but decided that for now she just needed to wait for the right opportunity to escape, and then she would try to figure out just what was going on.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to worry about Moody as the first task had approached, and instead she was spending all her time with Harry and Neville trying to figure out a way to complete the task without Harry dying.

"You can do it." Hermione affirmed that morning, before pushing Harry into the champions' tent.

If she was honest, she didn't have any strong expectations for Harry. If she thought she was going to die then she was have to interfere to make sure he didn't, but she didn't really know if he would be able to make his plan work.

"I'm going to throw up." Neville said, face ashen.

Hermione simply took hold of Neville's hand, saying nothing, watching the dragon and waiting for Harry with some anticipation.

Thankfully though, Harry's plan _did_ end up working, even though he did cut it a bit close at some point. Either way he had ended up with the egg, and had successfully avoided death by fire.

After it was over Hermione and Neville ran up to Harry and pulled him into a hug. That had entirely been Neville's plan, as Hermione was not quite one to show physical affection (or any affection) often.

Harry laughed, relieved. "I did it."

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. Professor Moody isn't Professor Moody." Hermione dropped, sudden and out of nowhere.

Harry and Neville shared a look, then gestured for Hermione to continue.

Hermione shared what she had learnt the other night, and Neville had frowned in dismay.

"But what does this mean? Why would Crouch be pretending to be Moody?"

Nobody knew how to answer that question, and when that night they had entered the Great Hall, only to see Barty Crouch conversing with Dumbledore while Moody stood to the side, they had no idea what to think of it all.

In the middle of dinner, Hermione passed the map secretly to Harry. "Take Neville out and check the map."

Harry and Neville left for a moment, and then returned a few minutes later, looking significantly more worried than they were before.

"What did you see?" Hermione asked.

"There are two Barty Crouches." Neville whispered, eyeing the one pretending to be Moody suspiciously. "Fake Moody is also Barty Crouch. How does that make sense?"

"How can there be more than one Barty Crouch?" Harry asked, accidentally a little too loud, catching the attention of someone who was seated near them.

A student that Hermione had never cared to learn the name of, leaned towards them. "Barty Crouch has a son, also named Barty Crouch. Barty Crouch Sr. and Barty Crouch Jr. Haven't you heard? My Mum talked about them once, said they were in the Daily Prophet because Crouch Jr. had been ousted as a death eater and his own father Crouch Sr. had sentenced him to Azkaban."

Hermione thought about this for a long moment, before turning to Harry and Neville with hard eyes.

"My guess is that Crouch Jr. wasn't actually sent to Azkaban, and is now pretending to be Moody. I'm pretty sure Crouch Sr. is who he says he is. That just begs the question as to why Crouch Jr. is Moody, and what exactly he plans to do."

Neville cursed under his breath at the new development, and Harry merely grumbled that he wished things were normal for once.

*

The Yule Ball happened before anything could be done about Crouch Jr.

Hermione had descended the steps to the great hall in her periwinkle dress, hair pinned neatly to the top of her head, and had stolen the breath of many of the boys there that night.

She had went as Harry's date, but had danced with many different people that night. She had been surprised when Viktor Krum had asked for a dance, and was shocked even further when he had revealed that he had planned to ask her to be his date until he found out that she was going with Harry.

"You look, um, you look pretty." Harry mumbled, face aflame.

Hermione thought it was kind of funny how he was reacting, so she smiled, and watched with satisfaction as he blushed even more. "Thanks, Harry."

Neville had said the same thing, except he'd had an even harder time getting the words out. Hermione had laughed, and then told him she thought he was pretty too, which made him choke on his spit.

At the end of the night, as the crowd was beginning to thin out, Hermione kissed both Harry and Neville on the cheek, and then promised to meet them in the common room after midnight.

(Unbeknownst to her, those kisses had changed a lot for the two of them that night.)

The three met back up in the common room, Hermione bringing the map and Harry bringing the cloak. And then the three of them had snuck off to check up on Moody (Crouch Jr.) and try to figure out just how exactly they should handle the situation before them.

They snuck into his office, and this time Hermione did take a moment to assess the box that sat in the corner (the box that she suspected held the _real_ Moody). She poked it a bit with her wand, reciting a few unlocking spells, but nothing happened. Then, just when she was about to just blast the damn thing open, fake Moody finally returned.

The three of them held their breath as they watched him walk around the office, occasionally mumbling things to himself under his breath. Hermione had began to get a little bored, and had to stifle many yawns before something interesting finally happened.

Crouch Jr. had decided he was bored too, so he unlocked the box Hermione had been trying to unlock earlier with a spell she hadn't heard of before. The three of them peeked over the edge to see that the real Moody was indeed in there, in a box that seemed to stretch for miles.

Fake Moody has looked down at the real Moody and cackled. "Comfortable down there, Moody? How does it feel to know that because of your inadequacy, Voldemort will be returning to flip the wizarding world on its head? The Dark Lord gave me an important task, you see. I'm to bring Harry Potter to him, and then once he has Potter, he'll be back to full power and he can right the wrongs that have been committed. Want to hear how? Are you curious, Moody? It's the cup. The cup is a _Portkey,_ you see. Once Potter takes the cup he'll be taken right to the Dark Lord."

Hermione felt Harry start to shake next to her, so she took one of his hands in hers as Neville did the same with his other. They had to wait another hour before Crouch Jr. left to sleep finally, and then the three of them had slowly made their way back to the common room.

"I-" Harry started, looking scared out of his wits, "Voldemort. Again?"

Hermione frowned. "Unfortunately."

Neville exhaled a shaky breath. "What do we do? How do we- Who should we tell-"

"Sirius." Hermione cut in, tone carrying a sense of finality to it. "Sirius only. Maybe Remus too. Not Dumbledore. None of the professors. And, listen, I know you're not going to like this, but I think we have to go through with the whole thing as if we don't know anything."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Right now we have the upper hand because Crouch Jr. has no idea that we've figured out his plan, but if we show our cards too early and we change things then he'll retreat and then we'll have no idea how to get to Voldemort to stop him. But as it stands, we know that the triwizard cup is a Portkey, we know that once you touch the cup it'll take you where Voldemort is. Because we know that, we can prepare for it. But if we do anything to derail things right now it'll be too soon, and then they'll change the plans and we'll go back to not knowing anything."

"But how could the three of us stand a chance against Voldemort? Even with Sirius' help? And it's not like we can be there with Harry when he's doing the third task, we won't be able to take the cup with him."

Hermione took a breath, face serious. "I'm not sure what we'll be able to do, but we have to try, don't we? We've got the cloak with us, we can just sneak into the third task with Harry and no one will know. It'll be a bit difficult with Sirius there too, but I'm sure we'll be able to handle it."

Harry had calmed down significantly during the conversation, and was now looking more contemplative than anything. "...If we tell Sirius he'd probably tell Dumbledore... I don't think he trusts us that much. He probably thinks we should leave it to the adults."

"Fat lot of good that's done us so far." Neville muttered under his breath, bitter and a little upset that yet again something _awful_ was happening to his friend.

"Then we won't tell him what's actually happening, we'll just convince him to come with us to follow Harry. Maybe you can convince him you'd feel safer with him watching after you. I'm sure he wouldn't mind breaking the rules if it was for you."

Harry nodded. "Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Should we get Remus too?"

Neville shook his head at that. "I don't think we could fit all four of us under the cloak. Me, Hermione and Sirius would be troublesome enough as is. I think it would be better if it was just us three."

"Sirius can apparate, anyway, so it's entirely possible he could apparate to Remus and then bring him along later."

The three of them solidified their plan that night, running through it again and again to make sure they were as prepared as they could be for the eventual confrontation with Voldemort.

With all of them so focused on Voldemort, none of them had remembered to worry about the second task.

*

(Harry almost drowned in the second task, but ended up coming first all the same, pulling Hermione out the water with him ten minutes before Cedric Diggory resurfaced.

Sirius was all to happy to go along with the plan of sneaking into the third task to look after Harry after he learnt that Harry had nearly died during the second.)

*

The third task was a maze, a big, daunting maze.

Sirius, Hermione and Neville had followed Harry in under the cloak, watching carefully as he made it through each of the puzzles to reach the cup in the centre.

"Guys?" Harry whispered, looking around him.

Sirius startled as Hermione suddenly took the cloak off of them.

"We're here." Neville announced.

Sirius, confused, asked, "Wait, Harry, you knew we were there?"

Harry looked a bit sheepish as he nodded. "Yeah."

"We have to take the cup, _now,_ before anyone else shows up."

Sirius was about to protest, thoroughly puzzled by it all, but then Hermione had taken his hand and then the rest of them reached for cup at the same time.

The four of them were sucked in then spat back out in some sort of graveyard, and Sirius was again about to say something but then, as if anticipating that, Hermione cast a _silencio_ on him and rendered him effectively mute.

"Cloak." Hermione hissed, and Neville threw the invisibility cloak over the three of them again.

Sirius was kept from making any movements by both Neville and Hermione, who both had a firm grip on each of his arms.

Harry stood up and dusted himself off, wandering around a bit while the three of them followed him silently.

Suddenly, Harry got hit by a _stupefy,_ and Lucius Malfoy walked out of the shadows, carrying a bundle of something in his arms.

At that moment, Hermione lifted the silencing spell off Sirius and threw the cloak off, revealing the three of them to Lucius.

Caught off guard, Sirius managed to hit Lucius with a _petrificus totalus_ before he could react, and Hermione ran over to Harry to undo the stunning spell.

"Vol- Voldemort." Neville stuttered, pointing at the bundle of cloth that landed on the ground next to a frozen Lucius.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, then walked over and used her wand to lift the cloth away, revealing the grotesque human like creature underneath.

"You have no idea who you are dealing with-!"

Before Voldemort could say any more, Hermione began to pummel her fists repeatedly into his tiny body, focusing more and more magic into her fists with each punch until Voldemort was barely breathing. Sirius had to physically pull Hermione back to keep her from doing more damage.

Harry had never seen Hermione lose control like that before, and felt an odd sort of tingling sensation in his stomach in knowing that she had done that for _him._

"Christ, Hermione." Sirius mumbled, staring down at Voldemort's bloody and beaten body with disbelieving eyes.

"Sirius... I... I think you need to call for help now." Neville spoke up, purposefully averting his eyes from where he knew Voldemort was laying.

Sirius looked a bit out of it still, but nodded and apparated away.

"Voldemort, huh?" Hermione said, sneering down at him. "Not so powerful now, are you? You're such a small, _weak_ little thing. Bet even Malfoy over there thinks you're pathetic. Some Dark Lord you are."

Voldemort choked a bit, attempting to reach up to her. Probably to strangle her, she guessed, not that he would even be able to muster the power to do any damage.

"Fool." He spat out eventually, after a couple tries. "You cannot kill me. I will come back, and keep coming back, and you will never-"

Hermione shut him up with a silencing spell, then laughed as he continued to try and speak, outraged.

Neville merely made his way over to Harry, clutching his hand tightly as they both watched Hermione egg Voldemort on. Neville wondered just how Hermione was able to do this without feeling in the least bit scared. Harry was simply watching on, eyes lit up with something like admiration, looking only at Hermione, not even once stopping to spare a second glance to Voldemort writhing on the ground.

(Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius, the minister and a whole lot of aurors arrived after a while.

At that point, Harry, Hermione and Neville were huddled together on a rock, waiting with patient smiles.

The minister stepped forward, saw Voldemort, and then stumbled backwards and fell on his arse.

Some of the aurors went to check on Voldemort, and Lucius lying very still next to him, and some went to ask the children what happened.

Sirius cut in then, explaining the story and taking responsibility for the state Voldemort was in. Hermione raised an eyebrow at this, but kept silent.

Dumbledore didn't seem to fully believe him, casting that strange knowing glance her way again. Neville had only pulled her closer to him, as if attempting to shield Hermione from Dumbledore's gaze.

Lucius was arrested.

Voldemort died from his injuries before he reached the ministry.

The minister mumbled, "Finally. He must be gone for _good_ now." but Hermione knew better.

She looked over at Harry and Neville, and knew they knew it too.)

*

("You're crazy, you know that?" Sirius had said, after a moment.

Hermione shrugged. "You think so?"

Sirius barked out a laugh. "No normal, _sane_ person would've walked up to Voldemort and punched the living shite out of him."

"People should be crazier, then." Hermione remarked, grinning.

Sirius shook his head, huffing. "I think one of you is enough."

"Why did you tell them that you did it?" Hermione asked suddenly.

Sirius frowned just a bit. "I didn't want them asking you any questions or bothering you about it. Voldemort deserved it, there was no doubt about that, but I don't think they would've been too happy to know that you had so thoroughly beat him up like that. It would've been safer to just let them think that I did it. People get suspicious around children that have more power than they should."

Hermione considered it for a moment before nodding. He was probably right. "I suppose I should thank you then."

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one meant to be thanking you. You seem to be much more capable of protecting Harry than I am."

Hermione snorted. "You'll pick it up after a while.")

*

Fifth year had been a lot more subdued than any other year.

Even though the events of what really happened during the third task in the Triwizard Tournament had come out in the daily prophet and people had been in a tizzy for weeks, as soon as school started again it was simply like everything had went back to what it was before.

Except it wasn't, Hermione knew that.

Crouch Jr. had been arrested as soon as Hermione had told the aurors who he really was, but there were still death eaters at large. Bellatrix Lestrange and the few that had broken out of Azkaban were still out there somewhere, hiding. She figured soon enough Voldemort would be able to find another body, since he seemed so sure he wouldn't die.

Since the events of the graveyard, Hermione had thrown herself into her research. Voldemort had spoken with such a certainty when he said he couldn't be killed, when he said he would simply keep coming back. Hermione knew that immortality wasn't actually possible, but wondered if maybe he had somehow found the next best thing.

It had involved a lot of sneaking around in the restricted section at night, but eventually she did come across what she was looking for. Horcruxes.

She'd read up on everything she could about Horcruxes, and realised that she'd actually encountered one already. The diary. Tom Riddle's. It all made sense. How he was able to possess Ginny with it, how he had been able to project himself from it. Then there was the locket, she realised, though she hadn't thought about it since Sirius had brought it up. But that had already been destroyed too, fed to the basilisk as the diary had been. Hermione wondered just how many there were. She assumed there were more, probably. Voldemort seemed the type to be thorough with it. She knew too though that splitting your soul wasn't an easy thing, so she doubted the number could be anything in the twenties or thirties. She guessed a solid ten might be accurate. A nice, round, even number. If that was true though, that meant there were eight more Horcruxes to find, and she honestly had no idea where to start looking.

It's with that last thought in mind, that she begrudgingly decided to turn to Dumbledore for help. She knew that he had to know something, seeing that he had known Tom Riddle personally. She figured if she wanted more answers it would be better for her to start there.

She was still wary of him though, so she had made sure to bring both Harry and Neville with her when she went to seek him out.

"What brings you three to my office?" Dumbledore asked, smiling serenely.

Even that, even just the little smile he had, made Hermione nervous, made her want to leave.

"Voldemort has Horcruxes, doesn't he?" Hermione asked outright. "I know I've already seen two, two that I know to be destroyed. But knowing him, he probably made a few more. My guess was ten, what's yours, Professor?"

Dumbledore had went very, _very_ still at that, and then his polite masked had slipped right off his face to be replaced by something a lot more serious, a lot more grim. Hermione tensed slightly in her seat, and Harry reached out to place his hand over hers in an attempt to calm her.

"You've figured it out then, Miss Granger. McGonagall did tell me you were a very bright child. I suppose since you've come this far, I might as well tell you what I know."

Then he told them the entire story, Tom Riddle's background, Dumbledore's experiences with him. He told them that he himself had found a Horcrux and had it destroyed, at a cost however. He told them too that he didn't have a solid idea of how many horcruxes were made, but that he knew of someone who would have a clearer idea. Horace Slughorn. But try as he might, Dumbledore had never been able to get a straight answer out of the man.

"I'll do it." Hermione cemented, mouth set in a straight line. "I'll get it out of him. You bring him here and I'll have a chat with him."

Dumbledore looked at her disapprovingly. The look made Hermione grit her teeth. She hadn't said anything to deserve that look. She hadn't been running around doing everything he _couldn't_ do to have him look at her like that.

"I know you're fond of rather... underhanded tactics, Miss Granger. And although the situation may be dire, I don't think it's wise to continue walking this particular path you're taking. You leave Horace to me, I'll be sure to find answers soon."

Harry narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore, taken over by a sudden surge of anger. "Hermione has done more for me than you _ever_ have, Headmaster. You don't have the right to judge her like that and say that she should _walk a different path._ She's done nothing but save lives! I trust Hermione more than I could ever trust you."

Neville looked startled at Harry's sudden outburst, not used to seeing Harry speak so passionately in front of an adult.

Hermione's mouth was parted slightly, as if she was going to say something but forgot what. She didn't know how to properly express her gratitude for Harry sticking up for her, but she did appreciate it, so she squeezed his hand and hoped that he would understand what she meant.

"I... I did not mean to offend, Harry, not you or Miss Granger. I'm very sorry that you feel I haven't done enough. I suppose..." Dumbledore took a breath then, as if the next part pained him to get out, "I could let you handle Horace, since you're so confident you can."

_Since you're so confident you can._

Hermione snorted. "Thank you _ever_ so much."

*

Horace Slughorn arrived on Hogwarts grounds early on a Tuesday morning.

Dumbledore had promised that he wasn't trying to recruit him again, just that a few of his students were very adamant on meeting him.

Horace walked into the potions classroom, smiling slightly at the nostalgic view. Then he saw the three teens sitting in the room waiting, and recognised one of them immediately.

"Harry Potter?" Horace exclaimed, surprised.

Harry smiled. "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Pleasure's all mine, boy. Now, what exactly did you want to meet me for?"

Hermione had taken over then, talking all about how she'd read up about him, and that she had been so amazed at his accomplishments that she had wanted desperately to meet him in person. Horace thought it all very flattering, glad that his reputation had even spread to the younger years. He began talking then, sharing old stories, most of them about Harry's mother and other star pupils he had.

Things seemed to be going well for a while, at least until all of a sudden the other boy (Horace hadn't bothered learning his name) suddenly pulled out his wand and hit him with a body binding spell.

"What- What's the meaning of this?" Horace demanded, looking between the three of them in bewilderment.

Hermione stood up and walked around the table so that she was in front of him. "I asked you here for answers, Slughorn, and you'll give them to me."

"What? I- Whatever you're looking for-"

"Horcruxes." Hermione spat, levelling a cool gaze at him. "You know what they are, yes? You remember telling one of your students all about them, yes?"

Horace clamped his mouth shut and began to sweat.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Tom Riddle. That name should ring a bell. All I need from you, Slughorn, is for you to tell me how _many._ "

He remained silent.

Harry frowned. Neville sighed.

Hermione pressed on. "I am going to kill him. I am going to kill Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, as you knew him. I am going to _kill him._ So you tell me exactly how many Horcruxes I need to be hunting down, and then I'll let you go. You are doing nobody a justice by keeping this information to yourself, by letting him live another day. Do right by us, do right by Harry, do right by _Lily,_ and tell us how many God damn Horcruxes he made!"

Horace flinched at that, his eyes watering as he took in her words.

"I- I didn't- I don't-"

Hermione shut him up a fierce glare. "I don't need excuses, Slughorn. I just need a number."

"Seven." He muttered, openly crying now. "He said... he said seven."

 _Seven._ That she might just be able to work with.

Neville unbound him, and then the three of them left, leaving Horace Slughorn sobbing in the potions classroom.

(Harry relayed to Dumbledore later what they had gotten out of Slughorn.

Dumbledore had looked strangely put out, but accepted that Hermione had done what he couldn't and admitted that she might just able to find a way to end it once and for all.)

*

In the middle of the term, Sirius sent them a letter stating that he had caught Bellatrix Lestrange and that she was being held at the ministry.

Hermione was going to that trial, she would make sure of it.

She got permission from Dumbledore to leave Hogwarts that weekend with Harry and Neville (who hadn't looked entirely too pleased, but relented anyway) to attend Bellatrix's trial.

Hermione heard about how she was perhaps one of Voldemort's closest followers. Certainly one the most devoted ones. If Hermione wanted to find any more Horcruxes she knew she had to start somewhere. And Bellatrix had landed right in front of her, served atop a silver plate.

The three teens sat stiffly to the side as they watched the trial commence. Neville looked at Bellatrix for a long time without reacting. That was the woman who had tortured his parents, who had driven them to insanity. Now she was here and he desperately wanted her to hurt, wanted her to hurt like his parents had.

Hermione grabbed one of his hands, and sent him a meaningful look.

Then the questioning began. Bellatrix only seemed to cackle madly at each of them, never answering anything. When she did talk, it was only to try and gaslight the people in the room, even going as far as to ask Neville how his parents were while she howled with laughter.

Neville squeezed his eyes shut as if to block out Bellatrix's madness. Hermione frowned. She'd have to get rid of this one too.

She whispered a few things into Harry's ear, and then he had whispered into Sirius' and then the pair had left the room.

A couple minutes later there was a loud _boom,_ and people had slowly began to trickle out to check on the commotion. Once most of the people were cleared from the room, Hermione cast a couple locking charms on the door, and then knocked out everyone else asides from Bellatrix. Neville had merely stayed seated, watching everything with unblinking eyes.

"Who are you?" Bellatrix asked, eyes squinted suspiciously at Hermione.

"Nobody." Hermione answered, with a nonchalance that made it seem as if she was just having a casual chat. "I was simply sent to deliver a message."

"What's that?"

Hermione smirked then, leaning in close. "The Dark Lord says: _You've failed me. You are useless to me now._ "

Neville inhaled sharply, just as Bellatrix began to screech.

"No! No! He would never! I am his most trusted-"

Hermione shook her head. "Correction. You _used to be._ Now? Now he has no use for you anymore."

The next few seconds would be the tricky part, Hermione knew. If it worked, she would have her answer, but if it didn't, then Bellatrix would know that it was all an act.

"He also says," Hermione takes a brief pause here, her eyes darting to Neville for a moment before she fixed them back on Bellatrix, "he wants _it_ back."

Bellatrix began to scream again. "No! He gave it to me! He told me to keep it safe! He trusted me with it!"

Hermione grinned triumphantly. "Have you been listening to a word I've been saying, Bellatrix? The Dark Lord trusts you _no longer._ I'm sure he'll be so very disappointed to know that you couldn't even return to him what was rightfully his. You don't want to let him down any further, do you?"

At this point, Bellatrix had began to shake, crying uncontrollably.

"You can't take it! He left it to me! To _me!_ You'll never be able to find it! Only I can-"

Hermione slapped her, hard. "You are disobeying the Dark Lord's orders! You useless wretch! Have it your way, I'll simply go and inform the Dark Lord that refuse to give it up, and then he'll come and kill you himself."

Neville had finally seemed to snap out of his daze then, feeling a pit form in his stomach.

Bellatrix screamed, struggling against her chains.

Hermione slapped her again.

Finally, Bellatrix seemed to calm down, and then whispered, so quiet Hermione almost didn't catch it, "My vault."

Hermione smiled, wonderful and dangerous all the same.

Neville made his way down to them, passing by Hermione to take a proper, good look at Bellatrix.

"I had Harry and Sirius distract everybody." Hermione said into his ear. "You can do whatever you like with her. I suspect they won't be able to break through my locking charms for another few minutes."

Hermione retreated to the back of the room, keeping her eyes on Neville as he stood in front of Bellatrix.

Bellatrix raised her head, gazing at Neville curiously.

Neville brought forth all his loathing, all those years of hate he had for her and what she did to his family. Then he raised his wand, and pointed it to her.

Bellatrix laughed, like she didn't believe he could do anything.

For a long time, Neville didn't move. But then he saw a pen lying on the ground next to his feet. He picked it up, looked at it carefully, and then transfigured it into a dagger. Then, without hesitation, he plunged it into her throat.

Hermione watched carefully as he stepped back to observe, as Bellatrix clawed at the dagger in her throat and choked and bled and screamed.

(The entire thing had been explained away later as an unfortunate accident.

Bellatrix had hidden a dagger in her sleeve and had killed herself when nobody was looking.

The few people who had been in the room and had been incapacitated by Hermione had later had their memories wiped by her too.)

*

Sirius regarded the three teens with a hard stare. "So, did you find what you were looking for?"

Hermione twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, looking quite bored. "Yes."

"I'm not going to say she didn't deserve what she got, but I don't quite like the idea of you three dirtying your hands like that." He had said _you three,_ but looked at Hermione specifically.

Neville shook his head. "She deserved to have it come from me. That's what she deserved."

Sirius looked a bit startled at that, but understood, so he didn't press any further. "Alright, well, tell me about what you found out then."

"Another Horcrux. It's in her vault at Gringotts. No idea what it could be or what it would even look like, but I figured we'd just handle that once we got there."

"Now that she's dead I'm pretty sure the goblins can do whatever they want with what's left in her vault. I'm not sure they'd willingly give anything up to us."

Hermione bared her teeth. "Whoever said anything about _willingly_?"

Sirius sighed.

Why were Harry's friends absolutely frightening?

*

Breaking into Gringotts had been somewhat simple.

Hermione had taken only Sirius with her this time, and they had huddled under the invisibility cloak to sneak in. Then it was just a plain little _imperio_ and they were being lead straight to Bellatrix's vault.

"So," Sirius started, scanning all the items in the Lestrange vault with a frown, "what exactly are we looking for?"

Hermione eyed all the objects in the room. Nothing in particular stood out to her, so she had merely held out her wand and said, "Accio Horcrux!"

Sirius scoffed. "That's not going to-"

A cup came flying into her hand a second later.

She raised her brows at Sirius, who stood there with his mouth open. "Let's go?"

Sirius started laughing so hard that Hermione had to _silencio_ him before they began to make their way back out.

All of them returned to Hogwarts then, and Sirius and Neville entered the chamber of secrets for the first time.

"Sorry if this is unpleasant." Harry hissed, before tossing the cup into the basilisk's mouth.

"Four down. Three to go!" Hermione said, uncharacteristically chipper.

Neville and Harry exchanged a look. Sirius just chuckled.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly. "I almost forgot. Harry, can you ask if the basilisk can detect any dark magic near? I thought Voldemort might've hidden one of the Horcruxes here, but if he did I'd have no idea where to look and Hogwarts is entirely too big for me to just begin searching mindlessly."

Harry hissed some things to the basilisk, it hissed some things back, and then Harry turned to Hermion with a small smile.

"She said she can detect dark magic here. She's not exactly sure where, but she said she could probably pinpoint it if we let her out."

"Well, alright, tell her she can go try and find it, so long as she keeps her eyes closed and does it at night when everybody's asleep."

Harry nodded, then repeated what Hermione said to the basilisk.

Sirius left later that night, and made sure Harry promised to tell him if anything happened.

Then the next morning, the three of them went back down to the chamber to get the location of the next Horcrux from the basilisk.

"It's a wall." Neville stated.

"I don't think she would've made a mistake. If she sensed some dark magic here I'm sure it's here." Harry said. 

"Hm."

Hermione hummed, thinking about what she could possibly do about the wall as Neville paced back and forth in front of it, face twisted into a frown.

"Hey!" Harry gasped, pointing at the door that was suddenly in front of them.

"Neville... what did you do?" Hermione asked, disbelief written across her features.

"Nothing! I just... I thought really hard about wanting to find that Horcrux... and then the door, it just, appeared?"

Hermione pressed her lips into a thin line, and then slowly pushed the door open.

"I- Oh! This is the room of requirement!" Hermione gushed, as they stepped into the room.

They seemed to be surrounded by nothing but mountains and towers of abandoned or lost items.

"What's with all the junk?"

"The room of requirement only appears to someone when they really need it. It's built to accommodate what you need, or want, I assume, and since you were thinking about the Horcrux, it must've provided the room with the Horcrux in it." Hermione explained, looking around the room with bright eyes.

Harry looked across the room with exasperation. "So the Horcrux is somewhere here? In all this mess? How are we going to find it?"

"Accio works." Hermione remarked, as she busied herself by examining every object she could get her hands on.

"Alright then." Harry muttered, before he raised his wand. "Accio Horcrux!"

Nothing happened for a moment, and Harry began to think it actually _wasn't_ there, but then something came hurtling into his waiting hand.

Neville stepped closer to take a look. "It's a tiara?"

Hermione walked back over to them, leaning close. "It's pretty. Shame that it's got a piece of Voldemort attached to it."

Harry laughed.

*

The three of them hadn't begun to search for the last two Horcruxes yet when they hit a rather unfortunate obstacle in their plans.

Voldemort had gotten another body, again, somehow. Hermione wasn't exactly sure how any of it worked (no matter how much research she did on Horcruxes), so she had been completely blindsided by the new development.

He had attacked when they were least expecting, him along with the few other death eaters that had escaped from Azkaban with Bellatrix.

Hermione had figured Voldemort would have a bone to pick with her, given that she was the one who killed his last body. But he didn't seem to remember that, or her, at all, and she wondered about that.

She didn't have much time to think though, because the three of them were dumped back at the graveyard, and a death eater had just tossed his own hand into cauldron and Hermione _knew_ this wasn't good.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but the death eaters this time had a lot less patience, so before she could even get a word in, she was hit with a _crucio._

It wasn't fun. It had hurt, more than anything she had ever experienced in her life. Not even her trusty shield could protect her from the amount of pain she experienced. She wasn't even sure if she was making any noise, too lost in the pain she was experiencing to focus on anything else.

"Hermione!" Neville cried, though she couldn't hear him.

The death eater stopped once he felt Hermione had suffered enough. She struggled to regain her breathing as she recovered from the torture curse.

A bunch of things happened after that, none that Hermione could pay attention to. She only noticed when Harry began to yell, thrashing as someone cut his arm and took his blood.

By that point it was too late. One death eater had dumped Voldemort into the cauldron, and then a grown, half man half creature version of Voldemort stepped out.

Neville held her close, gripping her tight.

Hermione was tired, and in pain, and could barely spare a clear thought.

"Sirius." Hermione whispered to Neville.

They had been practising their Patronuses earlier, specifically for situations like this. Neville's Patronus was barely corporeal, but Hermione didn't even think she could stand let alone cast a spell, so she'd have to rely on him.

Neville shot Harry a look, and Harry nodded just barely.

Harry then began yelling, distracting Voldemort and a handful of his death eaters. It was enough so that Neville could cast his Patronus without anyone noticing, but because of the fuss he'd made, it gave Voldemort the kick he needed to finally start trying to kill Harry.

Hermione needed to think. She needed to get them out.

"Voldemort is busy with Harry." She said, voice quiet. "We need to take out the death eaters."

"Hermione," Neville protested, "you just took on the cruciatus curse! You're in no position to fight-"

"We _have to._ He's going to kill Harry. _We have to._ "

Neville gave her one last long look. "Okay. _Okay._ On three?"

Hermione started the countdown, and then as soon as she got to three, her and Neville darted off in opposite directions. Hermione used the same magic she used with the troll when she was a first year to make her run inhumanly fast, and took down as many death eaters as she could. She heard Neville somewhere behind her yelling out different spells. Hermione shouted off a few spells of her own, but they weren't as powerful as they usually were as she was quite exhausted and her muscles were still twitching from the cruciatus. So instead, Hermione relied on what was familiar, and simply began punching and kicking with her superpowered fists and feet at anyone within reach.

It didn't take long before her and Neville had managed to take down all of the death eaters. Now it was just Harry and Voldemort.

Or that was what she thought, until she caught sight of the snake.

"Duck!" She'd yelled to Neville, who dove just in time to miss the snake launch itself at where his neck used to be.

Hermione and Neville shot spell after spell at the snake, but none of it worked. Hermione was getting increasingly more frustrated. If it were a normal snake it wouldn't-

"Shit." She said. "Shit!" She said, louder. "Neville, I need a dagger, _now._ "

Neville scrambled to find something to transfigure while Hermione held down the snake. He managed to find a hair ornament on one of the death eaters and proceeded to transform it into a dagger like he had done with Bellatrix. He pressed the dagger into Hermione's hand.

"You take over with the snake for a minute, let me..." She trailed off, fumbling around with her coat pocket until she found what she needed.

She pulled out a vial, removed the lid and then poured what was inside over the dagger.

The snake launched again, and this time while Neville distracted it, Hermione jumped and stabbed the dagger into the snake.

It stopped moving immediately, falling to the ground with a thud.

Hermione coughed, staggering forward and into Neville's arms.

"How did you-"

"Snake was a Horcrux. That's why none of the spells were working. Lucky for us, I had the foresight to ask the basilisk for some of its venom so I could carry it around with me _just incase_."

Sirius arrived just then, with an entire entourage, as well as a lot more death eaters apparently.

There was no time to talk or explain as they were thrust into battle yet again. Hermione channeled every single ounce of magic into her feet again and ran around in an impossible speed as she either simply snatched death eater's wands from them or smacked them upside the head. It didn't feel very heroic, or proper, but it was effective, and when Hermione felt it was clear that the death eaters were beginning to lose, she began to make her way to Harry.

She seemed to arrive just in time for Voldemort to shoot the last, deafening _"Avada Kedavra!"_. It nearly missed, but didn't, catching Harry in the shoulder.

Hermione's vision went red.

As soon as Harry hit the ground, lifeless, Hermione pounced on Voldemort, wrenching his wand from him and snapping it in half as she channeled everything in her into beating the life out of him.

She couldn't feel it, not really, but she was vaguely kind of aware that her fists were connecting and landing on his face, nose, neck, chest, stomach. Over and over and over and over.

She remembered that this had felt good, once, this kind of power, this kind of violence. She felt nothing now, though. Nothing except muscle fatigue and a very distant ache somewhere in her chest.

She didn't stop until she was hit in the back by another _crucio_ and was effectively pushed off of Voldemort.

This time the _crucio_ had only lasted a few seconds, but she had felt it all the same.

Sirius (she thought) was suddenly at her side, throwing her arm around his shoulders and attempting to pull her to her feet.

Neville appeared in front of her then, taking her face into his hands. "The death eaters, we got them all. And Voldemort, you..."

"Harry." Hermione coughed out, not caring to hear anything else.

Neville flinched. "He's-"

"Right here." A voice interjected.

Hermione _knew_ that voice.

Her body felt like jelly, but still she found the strength to lift her head up and looked into the eyes of a very much _alive_ Harry Potter.

"What the _fuck_." Neville coughed out.

Harry grinned. "Had a Horcrux in my head the whole time. When he hit me with the killing curse it only killed the part of his soul that was trapped in there."

"Seven." Hermione gasped. "That's seven. Ring. Diary. Locket. Cup. Tiara. Snake. _You._ That's Seven. He's-"

Hermione stormed off before she could finish her own sentence, stalking towards where she had left Voldemort's badly beaten body.

There were aurors standing around now, wands pointed at him incase he were to make a move. Hermione had shoved one aside, and then knelt down to look him in the eye.

"Seven Horcruxes. Gone. Destroyed. You're _mortal,_ Tom, just like us." She whispered, though in the silence it had carried like she had shouted it.

Voldemort began to convulse, in rage or something else she didn't know.

She didn't care.

"Fuck you." She said, as she grabbed his head and ripped it from his body.

She let out one loud, wicked laugh, Voldemort's decapitated head in her hands, before she promptly passed out.

*

Hermione woke up in St. Mungos a week later.

Harry and Neville immediately threw themselves at her when they saw her slowly blink her eyes open.

"You're heavy." Hermione complained, whining when neither Harry nor Neville made an attempt to move.

"You deserve this for scaring us like that." Neville huffed, wrapping one arm around her stomach.

Hermione frowned. "What happened, exactly? I mean I know I-"

"You tore Voldemort's head off his body and then you passed out. You've been in here, asleep, for a week. Healers said it was because you exhausted too much of your magic."

"Oh." Hermione murmured. "Sorry, I feel like I stole your kill there."

Harry laughed, reaching his arm out to place on top of Neville's. "He was actually still alive, after you ripped his head from his body. Not really sure how, but then I set him on fire. He didn't come back after that."

"Huh."

Dumbledore walked in then, startling the three of them. "That would've been because of the prophecy."

Hermione wanted to move, but couldn't when she was sandwiched between Harry and Neville.

"Prophecy. Okay. You'll be explaining now, right?"

Dumbledore then recited the prophecy word for word, making Hermione frown. So the only reason Voldemort hadn't died when she decapitated him was because of this? Because he could _only_ die at Harry's hands? Even though Hermione was the one who had done all the work? Hermione really hated life sometimes.

"I had originally thought love was the power that he knew not, but it might've been you all along, Miss Granger."

Hermione's frown only deepened at that news. "So it was fate for me to just, do all the work and for Harry to get all the credit? That's- That's _bullshit._ "

Dumbledore gave her that look again, disapproving and disappointed. "That's just the way it-"

"Shut up. Go away. I don't want to hear it, I don't want to listen to your voice again for _at least_ a year."

"Now, Miss Granger-"

Harry raised his hand. "She wants you to leave, Dumbledore."

That was enough for Dumbledore to finally exit.

Hermione meanwhile, sighed and shut her eyes.

"I feel cheated."

Neville laughed from beside her, his head nestled against her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure you're always going to be known as the witch who ripped Voldemort's head off his shoulders. It's in the Daily Prophet already, apparently one of the aurors that was there ended up talking to the press about the whole thing."

Hermione groaned.

*

(Later, back at Hogwarts, Hermione kissed both Harry and Neville, on the lips.

"I- What-"

"Hermione- Why-"

Hermione shrugged at their startled expressions. "Just felt appropriate."

That, like many things, had simply been a new adventure for the three of them to discover together.)


End file.
